Organization applauds reopening of murder probe in Guatemala

The IAPA welcomed a decision in December 2009 by the Supreme Court of Guatemala ordering the reopening of the case of Jorge Carpio Nicolle, publisher of the newspaper El Gráfico and presidential candidate, murdered on July 3, 1993.

The Carpio case, investigated by the IAPA in 1993, led the organization to launch its Impunity Project and its inquiries into 76 additional murder cases, as well as follow-up legal proceedings, which led to the imprisonment of 126 defendants who have either their time or remain imprisoned for murdering journalists.

Following its investigation into the Carpio murder the IAPA submitted its findings to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which, in turn, presented them to the Inter-American Court. In July 2004 then-president Oscar Berger of Guatemala acknowledged to the Court his administration’s international responsibility, agreeing to investigate, bring to trial and punish both those who carried out the murder and those behind it, an action that was revalidated by the country’s Supreme Court.